


Maister Black's Academy of Magic

by unseelieWriter



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Magic, Oneshot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 10:49:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unseelieWriter/pseuds/unseelieWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack is tired of his boring everyday life. Luckily he saved up enough money to attend Maister Black's Academy of Magic.<br/>But only money isn't enough to attend to the Academy, there's a catch.<br/>There is a reason why Maister Black is rumoured to be the devil...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maister Black's Academy of Magic

**Author's Note:**

> So first of all I'd like to thank Zinfandel, for being my proofreader, I've never had a proofreader before. so having Zin proofread it for me showed me the importance of having a proofreader. I'm really grateful to her! (She's awesome go check out her fics)  
> Second, this is based on one of the many different interpretation of a Scottish folk tale, I found in a rather old book about Scottish folk tales. It struck me with inspiration and I just had to write this fic. Kudos to you if you can figure out from what book I got it and what folktale it's based on since the book looked and smelled really old and I didn't find the story when googling it. Naturally because it's a Scottish folktale, the story is set in Scotland (the 14th/15th century).  
> Anyhow, enjoy!

Jack was a normal, young lad. He had loving parents, a cute little sister, and a herd of sheep as his father was a sheep herder. He wasn't a nobleman who belonged to a clan and while not having money he wished more than anything to attend a certain school of magic, which only the rich could afford.

  
After hearing a story about that particular school at a young age, Jack couldn't help but get excited and ever since then Jack's been saving up money to follow his dreams and become a magician. It turned into a way to escape the everyday life that had become too boring for Jack's taste. And when he had enough money at the age of 18 he told his parents of his plans, to which they both protested.

 

“No! Jack, that's not a smart idea, laddie. Have you not heard that the man teaching there is the devil himself?” said his father

 

“Aye, you could die. Maister Pitch Black will not do you well. It will be all for naught, you should stay here and become a sheep herder like your father, it has a wee bit less of a chance of dying a painful death.” added his mother.

  
“Who's afraid of the devil or of death! Not me, that's for sure!”

Despite their protests Jack left on an early morning after saying goodbye to his little sister, and asked her to give their parents his kind regards.

  
The highlands were rough, windy, rainy, and foggy. It was often hard for one to find the right way, but as the young lad was used to the rough terrain and the heavy fog, he wasn't frightened in any way. Eventually, day turned into night and he rested near a glen streaming through the woods.

 

The next day he finally reached Maister Black's place. It was a grand building, set in a valley in between two mountains.

When Jack tapped on the door with his staff, the front door was opened by none other than the Maister himself. He was surprisingly tall, at least two heads bigger than Jack. His skin was a greyish colour and his eyes were a mix of gold and silver. His black hair was short and brushed back, which was a hairstyle Jack hadn't seen before. As he stared at the supernatural man the man cleared his throat and asked with a smooth, dark voice.

“What is your will, my lad?”

“I'm Jack Frost and I'm here to learn all you can teach me and to change my normal everyday life, Maister Black”

“It will cost you a bittock” he said.

“I have the money to pay.” said Jack.

“Well come in then,” said the taller male, “and sit down until you hear the terms of my schooling, They are not... to every lad's liking.”

“Well, if they're to mine, then that's all I need.” Jack said as he stepped into the great entrance hall, and took a seat. Maister Black sat opposite to him.

The magical academy had thirteen rules, really standard rules, about time of rising, going to bed, attendance, behaviour, what was permitted and what was not during free time. It all sounded pretty normal and fair until Maister Black spoke of the thirteenth rule.

“When at the end of a schooling the pupils take their leave, the last one out is to belong, body and soul, for all eternity to me.”

Jack stayed quiet. It did seem pretty fair, seeing as Maister Black wasn't a person who seemed particularly interested in money, but what would he ever do to the pupil who stayed behind?

“What exactly will happen to the student who stays behind, sir?” Jack asked.

Maister Black grinned widely. “Wouldn't you like to know?” and handed a quill and the parchment with the rules to Jack. “If the terms are to your liking, sign here. If not, you're free to leave.”

 

Jack took the quill and the parchment in his hand and stared at the parchment. When he looked back up, the Maister was staring at him with a small smile.

 

“Have you decided yet?”

Jack nodded. He signed the contract and stopped to stare at what he had just written. The ink was red. “Is that blood?”

“Aye, it most definitely is.”

The man gave him an amused look. “Not even anything about having a ‘good pair of legs’. That is new. It is like you do not care about being the last one out.”

  
The young lad didn't really know how to respond to that, but was soon able to word his thoughts “It's not that, it's more like it's in the distant future and as we live in the present it's something that doesn't really matter now.”

“Excellent. Well then, will you be paying now or on the day you leave?”

Jack got the pouch filled with money from his pocket and handed it to the Maister. “Now. I might forget about it if I don't do it now.” said the young lad.

Maister Black peeked in the pouch for a moment and then put it in his pocket “Wonderful. Now come with me, let me get you acquainted with your fellow scholars.”

 

He led Jack into another great room, where about thirty young lads and lasses, from the ages 14 to 19, were sitting.

“We have a young new scholar, this is Jack Frost. Bid him welcome.”

“Welcome Jack Frost!” cried the scholars in unison once they had stood up, their voices echoed through the great room for quite some time before it was silent again.

“You may take your seats again” said Maister Black said, and just like well-trained soldiers they sat in unison. Jack found it to be a bit creepy and wondered whether the other pupils were like that originally, or whether Pitch trained them to be like that.

The Maister showed Jack to an empty desk, and then returned to his stand on a platform at the top of the room.

“This morning, I shall test you in the art of transfiguration.” Pitch assigned each student an animal,  
Jack looked around curiously as other students smoothly transformed themselves into their assigned animals. They changed from humans into birds, dogs, cats or mice.

One student failed, and had turned into a strange mix of something with a crow's head, weasel legs and a snake's body. When Pitch saw him he narrowed his eyes and leered at him “Jamie MacGuffin, you will be studying your text book for the rest of the day. I am sure that that will be more profitable than fooling around.”

  
 _MacGuffin, huh? He must be from the clan_ thought Jack. Probably most of the other students came from clans.

Pitch walked to the boy's table and tapped his chair with his boot two times and the creature changed back into the embarrassed brown-haired lad.

“Now then, all the other pupils are dismissed. Well done. Make sure to give the new pupil a warm welcome.” the tall male said as he dissolved into shadows.

Some of the other students changed back into their human forms when they left the classroom, but some stayed in the form of the animals that had been assigned to them.

Jack curiously eyed a lass that instead of fully changing back into a human form, changed into some sort of mix between a human and some colourful bird. She then snapped her fingers, making smaller versions of herself.

Some of the other students were floating through the air as they made their way to their seats in the great hall. One student wasn't even sitting on the chair but he sat on a puffy cloud that he had made in the air and hung above the table. Another lad was shushing a small black dragon, telling him he'd change him back to his bigger form once they were outside the building. A lass with very long blonde hair was letting magic hands braid it and arrange flowers into it. Another lass with bright red curly hair had made a huge amount of delicious looking food appear on the table.

Jack was amazed and looked at them with huge eyes, the students almost eyed Jack in unison with big smiles, gesturing for him to come sit at the table.

They all introduced themselves to him and afterwards complained about Jamie messing up their image.

 

“No, no, not at all!” Jack had said.

 

The other students laughed, telling it was just a joke. They showed the new student around the Academy and showed him how far he was allowed to go outside.

 

And eventually evening fell. Jamie was finally finished with studying and introduced himself to Jack too, apologizing for the silly display. Maister Black had also made an appearance, he took a seat at the head of the long table in the great hall, silently waiting for everyone to take a seat.

  
Jack noticed how everybody sat a few seats away from Pitch. He wondered why and took a seat next to the person who was the closest to Maister Black.

The other students stared at him like he was crazy, Maister Black, on the contrary, gave him an amused look. Merida, the red-haired lass, who sat next to Jack poked him in his side and made some gestures with her hands which Jack didn't quite understand.

She eventually just shook her head and slammed her hand against her forehead.

“Well then, let us eat, dear students.”

The food that had been created by Merida was once again delicious and despite the fact that Jamie was absolutely horrible at transfiguration, he was extraordinary good at creating good ale with magic.

Pitch was finished rather quickly and once he was done he just stared at Jack for a while. After a few minutes Jack couldn't ignore it anymore “Is there... anything on my face, Maister Black?”

Pitch chuckled in return “No, it's just that most pupils aren't brave enough to sit this close to me. It's like they think... I'll eat them up, from heads to their wee little toes. Or maybe even worse? Knowing their imagination, I'd imagine it'd be much, much worse.”

The room had grown silent, but Jack still responded “I don't think you'd do that, or at least do it just like that, Maister Black. After all none of us are bound by the thirteenth rule yet and it wouldn't make sense to do that to someone you invested that much time in.”

The tall male's grin widened “Aye, that's right. It'd be a waste of time if I did it... just like that.”

Jack hadn't noticed it before but Maister Black's teeth were very sharp. He wouldn't be surprised if he'd actually eat the student left behind at the end of the school year...

…  
…  
…

A quarter year passed, and although Jack was decent at using most magic, it wasn't perfect.

 

However, when it came to flying and weather magic, particularly ice magic, he was brilliant.

 

Riding the winds was child's play and so was creating snowstorms and conjuring any form of ice.  
Every student had their own specialties and weaknesses regarding the varying forms of magic. Pitch of course was great at all the forms of magic he taught.

One day, when all other students left the class Jack stayed behind, waiting for the others to leave.

His teacher eyed him curiously “Are you tired, Jack?”

Jack shook his head “No sir, not at all. I'm just wondering, what is your favourite magic?”

 

“Hmmm... Well then, let us do this.” Pitch said with a huge grin “If you guess it right I will teach you some extraordinary ice magic, which I have never taught anyone before.”

The frost mage's eyes grew large and he let out a laugh. “A special kind of ice magic? Oh that sounds wonderful!” He pouted, realizing that there wouldn't be a big chance that he'd be able to get it “Do I get a hint, Maister Black?”

 

“No.” said Pitch “You will have to figure it out from what you've experienced at the academy.”

Jack thought back, thinking about how Pitch looked while performing all kinds of magic, giving the class examples, none of them seemed to be particularly special to Pitch.

However he did always teleport to every place he went, even inside the school.

“Is it teleportation?” he asked.

“Hmmm.... well you're close to the answer but I think you need to look broader.”

Jack laughed “That was a hint, Maister. You said I'd get none.”

“So I did, but I suppose it would be unfair not to give you any.” said Pitch, eagerly looking at the lad.

The young frost mage thought back to the teleportation lessons they had had. One particular sentence in one of those lessons: _“Teleportation is not just something you can do through the air, it goes through any element or magic, you can teleport through fire, light, even through ice and all kinds of other forms of magic, remember it well.”_

That's it! Pitch always travelled through the shadows. He appeared from the shadows and he liked playing around with the shadows to scare other students.

“Shadows! Your favourite kind of magic is, darkness magic, shadow magic!”

“That's right. Congratulations, you got it Jack,” said Maister Black as Jack bounced up and down excitedly “Now then, there is only one question left, whether you actually dare to be alone with me, as none of the other students seem to want private lessons.”

“No, no! I'd be honoured to have private lessons!” said Jack with a bright smile.

“Is that so? Wonderful. Let us get started then, good lad.”  
  
…

  
Once Maister Black had given him his first private lessons, Jack sat only one seat away from him. He had opened up to Jack and they had long, pleasant conversations. Jack felt like Maister Black was just lonely and so he continued sitting next to him during dinner. Even though they creeped all the other students out, Jack didn't care, his friends would still speak to him and treat him like a friend and that was all that mattered.

…  
…  
…

 

Another quarter year passed. The other students were getting upset. Every student dreaded the day that they were all supposed to leave. Frightened to be the last one out. The fun atmosphere that had been there had completely disappeared. This saddened Jack deeply. He also realized that he was the only one not afraid of staying behind and bravely stood up and said “Don't worry! I will stay behind, you can all leave peacefully, I don't fear Maister Black.”

The other students grew silent and stared at him. There were mixed opinions. Some of his peers didn't agree and didn't want Jack to sacrifice himself and others were w ~~e~~ ary on whether he'd actually do such a selfless thing. In the end Jack managed to convince them all that it was all for the best and that he was the person best suited for it, not fearing their teacher.

Maister Black had taught him how to create permafrost, how to conserve his youth through ice, how to teleport quicker through ice. Tomorrow, he would teach him how to combine frost with other elements. He looked forward to it. He taught him and everyone else a lot of new things. Jack found he couldn't not trust him, besides the Maister was a rather attractive man, even if some would disagree. He may look a bit shady, but he was actually a nice person too.

 

…  
…  
…

 

A half year passed. And finally, the day had come for the students to leave. Some eyed Jack worriedly and others eyed him w ~~e~~ arily, suspecting him to betray them. But the frost mage smiled and put his two pointer fingers near the corners of his mouth and gesturing for the others to smile just as happily as they had smiled the rest of the year.

 

Some did but others kept the sour expressions they had had before.

The great doors of the great halls were wide open and Maister Black stood in the middle of the hall with a wee gong in his hand. “Now then my pupils, I have taught you all I could, and made great wizards out of all of you. I have your signed parchments, and you know what you signed for. When I strike this wee little gong, you'll make a run to get through the door. If I were truly a nasty and deceitful sort of fellow. I could keep all of you in here, to do my will forever and ever.” he smirked. “But I am only claiming the last pupil out, according to the contract.”

  
And with that, Maister Black struck the gong. Some pupils ran out immediately. But a few stayed, Jamie, Tooth, Merida, Hiccup and Rapunzel all stayed behind, gave Jack a hug and a few last words, saying that they'd try to visit him if it was possible. And after they'd done so, they peacefully left the great hall through the door. Jack smiled at them as the doors magically closed.

  
Maister Black put his hands on his shoulders. “Well then Jack, I suppose it is just you and I left here.” an evil grin was plastered all over his face. Even Jack felt a bit frightened. “That means that you are all mine...” Maister Black's right hand slowly crept to Jack’s neck and gently gripped it.

  
Jack shivered in response but managed to speak calmly “What are you going to do to me? What have you done to all the other pupils left behind?”

  
“Oh Jack... I hardly think it matters what I did to all the other pupils, as that's a fate that does not await you.” He turned Jack towards him and then let go, Jack let out a sigh of relief. Then with a charming smile Pitch asked “Do you still want to know?”

 

The frost mage felt nervous, sensing that it probably wasn't a very good thing, but as he still was really curious he said “Yes. I really want to know, Maister Black.”  
  
Maister Black laughed, no, cackled and then once again looked at Jack with a cheshire grin “Oh please, saying 'Maister Black' is needed no more. You can just call me Pitch from now on. After all we are going to spend a long time together and I would get rather sick, of hearing 'Maister Pitch' all the time.”

It was hard for Jack to change something he was so used to doing but he did it anyway, feeling that Maister Black could easily lash out at him in this situation “So... what did you do to the other pupils who were left behind... Pitch?”

“Why, I ate them to fuel my magical powers, of course.” Jack's eyes widened and he took one step back

  
“W-what? You actually ate them?” The young frost mage was shocked, but he couldn't say that he hadn't expected Pitch to have done something horrible to them. He had been aware of it since he first heard the thirteenth rule and he had fully ignored the fact the whole year.

“But that is hardly relevant, as I told you before, I do not intend to do the same to you. I am not planning to eat you.” Pitch said calmly.

“Why not?” asked Jack with a frown “It wouldn't make sense to not eat me... Besides the whole rule about one's 'body and soul' belonging to you for eternity doesn't make sense if you're only going to eat them anyway...”

“Ah yes, I eat their bodies, but their souls turn into my fearlings, my servants. Actually the more souls you possess, the easier using magic is. As for the rule, that way I would be able to do as I pleased to the pupil left behind. I would not want to be bound by the contract to eat every pupil that stays behind.” Pitch glanced at him “It would be a shame to do something I did not want to do to someone who was worthy...” Pitch shook his head “There are only little people like you out there, Jack... There are rarely volunteers and even when there are, they are not particularly to my liking... But you... on the contrary...”

He tilted Jack's chin up with his fingers “I would not mind to spend an eternity with you, Jack.”

The young lad felt the blood rushing to his head, he felt dizzy as the taller man stared into his eyes and the great hall started to darken. Jack realized that they weren't in the great hall anymore. They seemed to be in some dark underground cave. Pitch's golden eyes stood out and seemed to glow in the dark. Maybe they really did. They were hypnotizing.

“Cold and dark go well together... They are quite complimentary, do you not agree, Jack?”

Jack swallowed and blushed deeply as he answered “Yes... They really do...”

“Wonderful. Great minds think alike.”

Pitch then leaned in and firmly kissed Jack on the lips, claiming his new possession. No. Rather than his possession, Jack was his new partner, an ally who despite of his creepiness and evil deeds still decided to stay with him. Spending eternity with Jack, couldn't be anything but fun.

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not write extra snippets for this story in the future...


End file.
